This very poignant moment in the story is a battle of the
wills: The totally opposite and opposing Lizzie and Lady Catherine go mano a mano on
making their point supersede the other one's all over Mr.
Darcy
Lady Catherine had promised her daughter that Mr
Darcy would be her husband. Then she hears that Darcy was going to propose to Lizzie.
She confronts Lizzie, and Lizzie shows what she is made
of.
Some additional roles of this conversation
are:
To show the signs of changing
times: The story is actually set in changing times in England. While the old
traditions were still kept abreast, the reality is that Lizzie's society was approaching
the Victorian era, in which more and more independent women would talk like her and have
the same opinions. Lizzie is Austen's own mind and mouth in
print.
To establish the lack of wit of the
aristocracy: This show of words showed that Lizzie, the common, red-blooded,
middle-class, simpleton that Lady Catherine looked down on was more intelligent and
equipped for life than Lady Catherine.
To
entertain like the previous poster said, Elizabeth's wit was deserving of a
show of force of this magnitude. In a time when the aristocracy was viewed with the same
fanaticism as Mr. Collins would express, what Lizzie did was something thought of almost
unreal and socially unthinkable- to diss her out like
that.
To voice the opinions of the
audience: Jane Austen was sincere in voicing out what everyone else thought:
That the aristocracy was an idle and clueless class of people with no touch with
reality; that not enough opportunities of expression were given to women and other
social classes, and that society was itself wrong in its rules and antiquated
regulations against women, and people without means.
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